First Words:
Welp, I'll try to keep this as brief as possible so you can jump right into it: in this story, there are First Words and Author's Notes. While Author's Notes are general commentary on a chapter, First Words have the more practical purpose of answering guest reviews, being the glossary and relaying important information (or interesting trivia too, but not all the time). With that in mind, I listed the story's title as 'Touhou: Unsubstantial Underground Adventure', but its full title is actually 'Touhou Sanbouken (山妄件): Unsubstantial Underground Adventure', but I figured you couldn't care less about the kanji most wouldn't understand, so I ommitted them for the title: techincally, the story's named 東方山妄件 ～ Unsubstantial Underground Adventure; I was aiming for a Touhou-ish title, as if this were somehow part of something Touhou-related. At least, I tried my best ^^'
Originally, the title was 山夢件 (also read as sanbouken) but the kanji for dream over at the middle doesn't technically have this reading (so any normal person would've read it as 'sanmuken' instead, which would have ruined the wordplay), so I decided I should replace it with something that actually does. Anyway, that part is a wordplay on 'mountain adventure' in Japanese using kanji with different meanings: however, unlike before, I won't tell you said meanings... For now ;D Whatever the case, you'll see me referring to the story as 'Sanbouken' rather than, for example, 'UUA' most of the time, so now you know why.
Also, in here, the stick thing Reimu wields (it's technically a gohei) is canonically called 'Purification Rod', so that's what I called it too. Not only that, but the 'amulets' Reimu throws around here aren't fancy necklaces (^^') but ofuda, paper charms or amulets with divine properties (in Reimu's case, they're for combat): I translated them like that because I figured you'd be just as lost with the term 'ofuda' (and 'charms' was also awkward-sounding to me). As for her needles, she has them because... she has them. In canon, I mean (if you play as her in the games, you'd know). Now that I've gotten that out of the way:
"..." = Dialogue
'...' = Quotation marks, mocking tone
itallics = thoughts, emphasis
bold = intensity, 'in-game' text
itallics and bold = extra intensity
. . . = pause (within horizontal lines, that stands for a timeskip or transition into another scene)
Enjoy!
Chapter 1: Golden Flowers and Purple Ruins
Golden flowers.
Faintly feeling them on her back, Reimu Hakurei slowly gains consciousness and opens her eyes. "Where...?" she mumbles, somewhat light-headed. Unable to recognize the location she is in, she immediately stands up with a defensive stance, snapping out of any drowsiness she felt before. How did I get here?
Beyond the light shining on her, the rest of the room is dark. Staring up at the light almost blinds Reimu, as it's sunlight. Did I fall from there? But when did I...? "If I remember it right, I'm pretty sure I was going to check on this weird incident, and then..."
"... Well, this happened. I guess I'll just leave." While Reimu spots an ominous door within the dark area, she decides that she is better off knowing where exactly she is before going towards it, and the best way to do so is to leave and check if the sights are familiar. Seriously, what made me fall down here? I don't remember anything... The most Reimu remembers is flying towards the mountain. Afterwards, she draws a blank. "Ugh, weird..."
Sighing, Reimu starts floating upwards, towards the light indicating her exit.
... However, something hard stops her. Colliding with it, Reimu yelps as she is knocked back by a strange force preventing her from leaving the area she is in. "A barrier...?" she utters with a surprised expression. After taking out two amulets, Reimu throws them at the barrier; they have no effect on it. Instead, they merely stick to it for a few seconds before falling to the ground, leaving Reimu somewhat shocked while staring at the barrier intently. This looks like a strong barrier, she thinks as she lands on the floor.
Reimu floats up to it again, this time making sure not to crash into it now that she knows it's there. With a curious gaze, Reimu pokes it lightly; it doesn't hurt. But I still can't leave... How did anyone stick me through this thing in the first place? "Seems almost as sturdy as Gensokyo's..." But different in composition: the Great Hakurei Barrier is not a completely physical barrier, and is instead a 'barrier of sense' (or so Reimu heard from Yukari's explanations) with strange properties involving the border between reality and fantasy; this barrier sealing her now is made up of sheer magical power with seemingly no weak point, a completely different barrier overall.
If anything, this barrier may just be physically stronger than Gensokyo's simply due to the fact that Gensokyo's barrier does not mostly rely on sheer power like this one seems to. Despite such a simplistic sort of sturdiness, the barrier appears to possess an above average level of complexity that Reimu would have to take more time scrutinizing to fully grasp (rather than only momentarily ponder on it), though it still hardly rivals the inner workings of the Great Hakurei Barrier. For now, at first glance, it looks to be the sort of barrier that can only be broken under a certain condition: judging by its reliance on its physicality and raw magical power, that condition is most likely be a power that matches the barrier's... Something Reimu would struggle to amass so easily.
Even if she isn't weak at all, Reimu doesn't draw her strength from sheer power. Besides, the amulets Reimu threw, composed of spiritual energy, seemed to have lost their power by being in contact with the barrier's surface, as if their energy had been transferred to the barrier; the barrier itself seems comprised of spiritual energy. This more emotional, faith-based magical energy is what makes up most of Reimu's attacks, and while especially effective against youkai, she figures the power of said attacks would in no way match the barrier's or even dent it at all. Dropping the spiritual energy from her magical attacks altogether would still hardly fulfill the likely condition for the barrier's destruction either, so it isn't a plausible method.
Reimu considers attempting to dispel it. It's what she can and does for all the barriers she encounters, a process she easily executes: any barrier can be taken down by Reimu, whose knowledge on seals and barriers, as well as how they work is almost unrivaled; in under mere seconds, Reimu can normally dispel a barrier. However, she can tell this is a different case: it may seem simple, but the power stored within the barrier makes it all the more complicated to handle. Naturally, a physically weak barrier is easier to dispel because there is barely any magical power halting Reimu from taking down its core foundations. In this way, magical power in a barrier is like its padding, and this barrier in particular abounds in it. Due to this, for Reimu to dispel this barrier in particular, she would need some sort of preparation and ritual simply to cut through this power, let alone take down the barrier from its very core.
Reimu narrows her eyes, considering her options. Afterwards, she glances down at the ground and sighs. "There's no way I'll stay in this place for a whole week to take the barrier down when I don't even know what else it's trying to trap..." The culprit could be here, too. With that in mind, Reimu assesses that her priorities lie elsewhere, beyond taking the barrier down. Naturally, her highest priority is to return to Gensokyo, if she isn't in some obscure part of it already. However, assuming she was transported to this location, Reimu cannot help but consider that she may have been involved in some sort of sinister incident. As such, it is her duty to get to the bottom of the situation. At the very least, she must investigate the location, if not to find a way to cross the barrier. If it happened to be trapping something dangerous as well as herself, eliminating it could prove risky (and opening a hole in it by force could cause its destruction depending on the type of barrier), and Reimu only needs to leave by herself.
Reimu faces the big, purple, ominous door. "Seems like there's nowhere else to go but here..." she mutters, somewhat unmotivated. However, as she walks towards it, a determined, confident expression emerges. "Fine then! I'll go for it!" she declares before kicking the door open with a convicted gaze. "Whoever trapped me is seriously gonna take a beating after I find them out!"
"Well, someone will sure be in for a world of pain when that happens," a voice Reimu's mind can only describe as 'cutesy' utters, making her immediately spot its source. "I can almost feel bad for that door."
A golden flower.
It's smiling at Reimu, confusing her further. "A-a talking flower...?!" Is this some kind of youkai? Reimu finds herself leaning towards 'yes' as the answer to that question, finding no other justification for it being sentient (and with a face).
"Golly, judging by that reaction, you must be new here!" the flower remarks, keeping a fairly welcoming smile regardless of Reimu's suspecting gaze. "Out-of-place, even!" The flower winks, leaving Reimu with a skeptic expression. "I'm Flowey, Flowey the flower! Since I can see you're really confused, I'll just show you how things work around here, okay?"
Suddenly, from within her, a red heart emerges and floats towards a black square that just appeared in front of her; Reimu widens her eyes in shock. "Huh...?! Wait, what's going on?!" Afterwards, Reimu glares Flowey down, being at least aware that he was the one behind whatever is happening. "You better not be up to any funny tricks, you hear me?!"
"Oh, this is perfectly normal, trust me," Flowey cheerfully states. "The heart you just saw is your SOUL: it's the culmination of your entire being!"
Reimu stares at the heart blankly as she points at it, unconvinced. "This thing?"
"Yup! See that 'LV' below the box?" Confused, Reimu looks down at where Flowey told her to. "That stands for LOVE," Flowey explains, "which is what you want to get so you can grow stronger." From above him, five white bul— (friendliness) pellets materialize, rotating in the air. "And to get it—"
"I've got to dodge those with this soul thing, right?" Reimu cuts him off, finally finding something within Flowey's explanation that she can understand: the strange things in front of her are already enough to give her a headache, let alone the explanation of how it all works. "Well, that doesn't change much from what I usually do." To further familiarize herself with the new system, Reimu attempts to move her soul by hand; this does not work. Instead, at the precise moment Reimu considered moving her soul, it moved where Reimu wanted it to by itself. Wow, so I can just do it with my mind? I guess my soul'd know where I want to go, huh... Anyway, it's definitely convenient.
While Reimu is smiling contentedly at the progress she made with figuring out how everything works, Flowey shakes his head (?) and frowns disappointingly, seemingly saddened. "No, that's not it! You've got it all wrong!" Reimu's smile immediately disappears, replaced with a confused frown.
"I-I have? I'm pretty sure I've got to dodge those bullets." At least, as common sense, Reimu knows that bullets hurt, so dodging them seems like the best course of action.
"But these aren't bullets, you know?" Flowey looks up at them with an innocent smile. "They're something else entirely: they're friendliness pellets! You're supposed to catch them all and gain lots of LOVE!" Despite the seemingly cheerful demeanor of Flowey, Reimu, processing his words and having basically gotten used to the strange screen-like things in front of her, finds herself narrowing her eyes at him.
"'Friendliness pellets', huh..." she mutters, undoubtedly suspicious of him. If anything, her intuition is clearly telling her the things above Flowey are definitely not something she is supposed to catch. "For a flower, you're awfully fishy." Reimu's expression turns determined. "This is some sort of prank, isn't it? Just give it up already and let me beat you up, you weird flower."
They lock eyes. A moment passes.
. . .
... Flowey's initial smile turns into a devious smirk. "Golly, now that's just scary," he sarcastically remarks as he rolls his eyes. "So you figured it out before this could even start. Good for you, strange young lady! Now you'll clearly be able to see..." His eyes narrow at the precise moment his white bullets multiply, while Reimu remains unfazed, even as they circle her soul. "Just how painfully you'll DIE here...!"
Flowey laughs, his face distorting to a much more intimidating form, sharp teeth being somehow visible from the maniacal grin he had. Afterwards, the bullets close in on the red heart at somewhat slow speeds as if to create suspense, but Reimu merely gazes at them with great focus. "Wait, there's no way to dodge them...? Hey, you're cheating!" Reimu points at Flowey accusingly, seeing the circle already passing through the edges of the black square her soul is at. If that's really the 'culmination of my being' or whatever... I can't let it get hit!
"Cheating?" Flowey smugly questions. "Hee hee hee... What an IDIOT! I guess that's the only thing that won't change with the people that get put in this position. In this world, it's kill or BE killed: why would ANYONE care about something like CHEATING?" The smirk on Flowey's face only served to annoy Reimu further, making her briefly glare at Flowey before focusing on her soul again.
The bullets are slowly but surely closing in on it; Reimu frowns. "Hmph, if that's how you're going to do it, then fine! But you'll regret what you did!" In a determined manner, Reimu pulls out a single card. "Spirit Sign: Fantasy Seal!" With only those words, the card shines and from it, many glowing orbs of diverse colors and sizes emerge and aim for the bullets surrounding Reimu's soul, completely erasing them.
... Admittedly, Flowey is more than surprised at this. "WHAT...?!" After all, humans shouldn't possess that sort of power, even if Reimu happens to not belong in this world. The worst part, for Flowey, is that there are still remnants of the spellcard and, seeing as it's a homing one, said remnants quickly start flying towards him; Flowey scowls.
Swiftly, Flowey burrows into the ground and disappears from sight, unscathed. The orbs frantically spin around the area before fading away with a small, harmless explosion, leaving Reimu to stare at where Flowey was at before escaping. "That flower got away, huh..." Meanwhile, the strange squares and screens in front of Reimu fade away as well, the last one to do so being one with the text:
'*Flowey ran away.'
'*You won!'
Reimu decides to ignore the text (having other priorities in mind) and stares at the red heart returning to her, still finding herself somewhat in awe from how unheard of the situation is: Gensokyo is a location filled with many interesting things, people or youkai, but none have ever done something similar to what she just experienced. At least dodging bullets is still a rule of thumb in the area she is in, though, beyond that, Reimu has yet to comprehend how exactly conflicts are solved.
"Goodness, what is all this commotion about?!" Startled at the sudden entrance of another... thing, Reimu jumps back, only to gaze at the source of the female voice and see her form. Another youkai? Said youkai looks around frantically, seemingly worried, until she spots Reimu and gasps. "A human...?"
The youkai seems surprised, which Reimu isn't too focused on. Instead, she is focusing on her appearance, since she has never seen anything like it with other youkai: she is completely covered in a not too long coat of white fur, has two small horns and ears coming down to her neck; she is also wearing a deep blue dress with a strange symbol on it. "What else would I be? You're not here to play any weird tricks on me, are you? I've had enough of that for today."
"'Tricks'?" The youkai repeats with a curious gaze. "Were you being harrassed by any monster? You poor soul..." Despite her clearly concerned demeanor, Reimu still finds herself suspecting her of not being very trustworthy as well, especially after having encountered Flowey.
Besides, she is a youkai: it's practically customary for Reimu to beat them to the ground. "You could say that," Reimu answers with a frown and points her Purification Rod accusingly at the youkai. "But what about you? You're a monster; I bet you do your fair share of that kind of stuff too."
At the seemingly sudden accusation, the youkai's eyes widen. "Why would I ever do such a thing?" she asks, genuinely confused. Reimu gives her a skeptic look in response, considering whether to prepare her amulets for a fight or see what else the youkai would have to say. "That encounter must have truly scared you. However, worry not, child! I have no intentions of harming you. In fact, I have nothing but welcoming thoughts in my mind."
"Huh?" Reimu utters, staring at the youkai smiling warmly at her. "That makes no sense. Why would you want to welcome me? There's no way I'll believe that." Youkai prey on humans: underhanded methods aren't out of the question either.
With that in mind, Reimu feels the need not to let her guard down. "Why not? A human has not fallen down here in a long time," the youkai says, "Is it not normal for others to welcome new people?"
"You're saying that as if there were no humans around here." I guess there wouldn't be if it's so secluded... and full of monsters, Reimu thinks, growing even more suspicious of the youkai in front of her. "And I'm pretty sure your welcome isn't going to be pleasant."
The youkai blinks in confusion before gazing at Reimu sympathetically. Does she still think I'm like this because of that flower bothered me? "Well, there will be pie," the youkai points out with a smile.
"Human pie?" Reimu offers, playing along. "A red and white one, maybe?" She smiles knowingly despite the clearly unconvinced gaze, practically ready for a battle.
Meanwhile, the youkai reacts in a shocked manner. "Oh dear, not in the slightest!" She really doesn't seem up for violence; weird... Usually, in Gensokyo, everyone is up for violence. However, this clearly isn't Gensokyo, and the youkai in front of her is definitely not a normal one, Reimu concludes.
"What do you want then?" Reimu asks with a curious expression, assuming a more casual stance than before. Either the youkai is an amazing actress, or she is sincerely concerned for Reimu; her intuition bets on the latter. "If you're not gonna do any youkai-like, punishable things."
... The youkai willfully decides to ignore the last part of Reimu's words. "As I have implied in this conversation, I want to welcome you to the Ruins, my child," she answers, smiling at the fact that Reimu is no longer suspecting her. "After all, you have just arrived here, have you not? And you must surely be confused." Reimu slowly nods, as if acknowledging her words. "Well, I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I pass by this area every day in hopes of a human arriving, but it has been quite the long time since one has fallen."
"Every day? Isn't that kind of tiring?" Reimu immediately asks, imagining herself walking through the whole shrine premises every single day without fail: cleaning it is already troublesome enough...
Toriel chuckles. "You get used to it. If you do not mind me asking, what is your name, child?"
"Reimu Hakurei," Reimu responds, "Nice to meet you, I guess." To Reimu, such words feel strange because she never had to introduce herself in such a manner to a youkai before: usually, Reimu beats them up, and somehow remembers their names afterwards. Why is she keeping watch on humans though?
Besides, she must know there's a really strong barrier blocking the area; she'd know what it's for. "Now that we are acquainted, let me guide you through the Ruins," Toriel says.
Seeing as Reimu cannot leave the Ruins at present, she utters, "Sure." While she wants to know about the barrier and many other things, Reimu figures she can ask at a better time.
"Then follow me," Toriel says before she starts walking towards another ominous-looking door leading deeper into the Ruins. Giving no further acknowledgment than the sound of her footsteps, Reimu follows behind her, glancing at her surroundings in mild curiosity.
This place is really... purple. Having already entered the room Toriel was heading for, Reimu spots two sets of stairs in opposing sides, both leading to a single door on the top. Down below, near the stairs were red leaves, which make Reimu wonder how underground ruins could even have leaves in the first place.
Shrugging, Reimu follows Toriel up the stairs. In the next room, to the right, are five stone plates on the ground. Toriel steps on four of them, leaving only the middle one untouched. Afterwards, she pulls a lever next to the door and it opens; Reimu raises an eyebrow in slight awe. "Navigating the Ruins requires you to solve puzzles like this one. Do you understand?"
"Wait, I've got to do that? I mean, it doesn't look too hard, but... Why do you have puzzles around anyway?" Since Toriel is the caretaker of the Ruins (at least, according to her own words), Reimu is assuming she has knowledge of such things. However, there could always be the possibility of that not beng the case, as even Reimu doesn't know a few important parts about her own shrine... like its god.
Deciding to ignore that train of thought, Reimu focuses on Toriel's answer. "You could say puzzles have always been a tradition of sorts with monsters. Because of this, the Ruins have an abundance of them."
"Tradition, huh..." As Toriel and Reimu move on to the next room, Reimu glances behind her thoughtfully. "The youkai here are pretty strange." She never thought she'd find a need to point that out about youkai (since they were already so weird to begin with), but then again, she never thought she'd find a civilization of youkai who love puzzles so, in her mind, her statement is perfectly justifiable.
However, despite how straightforward Reimu was, Toriel seems confused. "'Youkai'? I apologize, child, but I do not understand what you are referring to."
For a moment, Reimu stares at her skeptically. "I'm talking about you," Reimu finally answers, still finding it strange that she actually had to do so, "You're all youkai, as far as I can tell."
"I see. Though I am not sure of that word's meaning, I can assure you that every resident of the Underground is a monster," Toriel says, "and not these 'youkai' beings you speak of."
Reimu waves her hand dismissively. "Same thing!" While voicing that, Reimu spots many yellow arrows pointing at a switch. "Anyway, I guess this room has a puzzle too? At least, judging by that." She points at the switch, noticing something in yellow written beside it, also with an arrow pointing to the switch.
Pretty flashy for a puzzle, Reimu remarks in her mind, Aren't puzzles about figuring the solution out on your own? "Oh yes, this room also has its own puzzle. In this case, you had to flip certain switches to pass through, which I have highlighted for your convenience."
"Doesn't this defeat the point of the puzzles?" Reimu asks. "If you have them around as tradition or whatever, you might as well follow through with them... not that I'd actually like to solve puzzles either." Reimu smiles apprehensively, hoping the puzzles won't be too hard. Rather than complicated tricks and roundabout paths, Reimu prefers charging straight ahead and just take care of the problem; needless to say puzzles aren't something she appreciates.
However, that doesn't mean she can't solve them if she has to. "Well, I simply thought it might be dangerous for you to try them on your own," Toriel explains, glancing to the side in slight embarrassment. "At least, not without having experienced a few beforehand."
Beyond the first part of the room she is in, Reimu sees a small river and a bridge leading to the other side of the room, where she can spot two other switches. The first one in that side is the one with the arrows, making Reimu immediately know which one to press. "Too dangerous? Huh..."What would've happened if I failed this one? Reimu thinks with a curious expression. "If you say so."
Feeling neutral towards the situation, Reimu walks over to the first switch and flips it. Meanwhile, Toriel crosses the bridge and stares at Reimu expectantly with a warm smile on her face. While she finds such a kind expression slightly strange for unknown reasons, Reimu simply approaches Toriel as she is blocking the path. Noticing this, Toriel's eyes widen slightly in realization before she heads for the pathway out of this room, currently blocked with spikes. "You are doing great, my child."
"I'm just flipping switches," Reimu points out as she flips the second one with arrows pointing to it and hears the sound of the spikes retracting to the ground afterwards. "There's nothing special about that. So, what's next?" Reimu asks as she follows behind Toriel, who is already walking to the next room.
When Reimu finds a dummy in the corner, she stares at it blankly. "As you can see, we will be going over fights," Toriel answers. "As a human living in the Ruins, monsters will attack you. However, there is no need to worry. You only need to stall for time; have a conversation with them. Afterwards, I will arrive to solve the conflict."
"Huh? No way," Reimu immediately utters, frowning at her. "I can handle myself just fine without you. Besides, it's not like I'm going to live here either, where did you get that idea?" Seeing Toriel's surprised expression, Reimu only narrows her eyes. "I've got my own home already, and I'm not planning on letting myself get permanently trapped because of some barrier."
. . .
... Toriel looks towards the ground. "However... You cannot leave. The barrier will not be broken. Besides, attempting to get out of the Ruins is dangerous, innocent child." She looks back up at Reimu with a saddened smile. "You are much better off here, where few will target you. Though we have yet to reach it, you can stay in my home; it happens to have a vacant room that you can freely use." As if realizing something, Toriel looks somewhat surprised. "Now that I think about it, I have not done much cleaning on it lately... Well, I was not expecting you, after all. In any case, do you see that dummy? You should—"
"Hey, I just told you I'm not going to do that, don't change the subject!" Reimu shouted, irritated.
Toriel glances at the side. "I was not changing the subject. I merely... Reminded myself of where we currently are and was going to finish what I was saying about how to resolve conflict in the Ruins. However, if you are truly confident you understand this, we can always skip this area and see the next one."
"That's not the problem and you know that! As I said before, I don't plan on sticking around if there's more to this place than the Ruins," Reimu asserts with a serious expression, "since that could have information on how to get me through the barrier. I want to go home: I've got my own duties to perform, and I'm not letting you get in my way." Reimu brandishes her Purification Rod, assuming a battle stance.
. . .
. . .
... Toriel narrows her eyes, seemingly aloof. "You poor, naive child. You do not know of the dangers that lie beyond the Ruins: they... Asgore... will kill you. If you do not stay here, you will not survive."
For a moment, Reimu stares at Toriel in awe of her lack of emotion, not having imagined she would ever see that. However, afterwards, Reimu's determined expression returns. "Stop treating me like I can't fend for myself. If that 'Asgore' youkai will target me, so be it," she stated, "I'll just beat him up and move on. Besides, what am I going to stay here for? Survival? I'd rather face all those 'dangers' than cowering in fear under that stupid barrier!"
While Toriel's eyes remain devoid of emotion, she chuckles weakly. "You are just like the others... Every human that falls here leaves the Ruins, determined to return home," Toriel slowly responds, "And every single one of them... Is met with their death in the Underground." She frowns, as if bitter memories had sprung to mind. "There is no hope for you out there, child. I will tell you this one more time: stay here. In the Ruins, you will be safe, I promise. I will take care of you the best I can, and make sure you lead a wonderful life here." Toriel attempts to smile, but it is clearly strained, the sadness of having heard Reimu's words still within her. "So please... do not go. Do not recklessly seek for something you cannot attain."
. . .
Reimu frowns bitterly. "Who do you think you are...?" Toriel's eyes widen at the tone of Reimu's voice, seeing how serious she truly is about that question. "My mother or something? I've handled myself just fine without one all these years, and I sure don't need one now." Reimu's other hands reaches for amulets. Toriel looks shocked. "Don't push your own desires on me. I'd never be happy here. You're the only one who'd feel that way! So, if you're planning on getting in my way..."
"... I won't hold back!"
'*Toriel blocks your path.'
A black screen appears in front of Reimu with those words, which surprises her. "Again with this thing...?!" As expected, her soul emerges from her and inserts itself below the biggest one of the screens, beside an 'HP' gauge: Reimu does not understand what that stands for, but it surely happens to be what the gauge is informing her about. Whatever the case, '20/20' is displayed there, indicating she hasn't lost any HP. Feeling Toriel's cold gaze, Reimu focuses on her again.
"It seems like I cannot convince you," Toriel remarks, "You are that determined to leave... just like the others. However, I am not letting you go to your death so easily. If you truly intend on venturing out of the Ruins, you will have to prove to me you have the strength to do so. Do you really wish to do this? This is your last chance. If you do not run away now, you will have to face me."
. . .
. . .
... Reimu smiles. "That's just what I wanted." Ying-yang orbs materialize and float around Reimu.
Five amulets fly in Toriel's direction.
Immediately followed by fifteen red and white bullets, and five needles...
. . .
"So, let me guess..." Marisa says with a casual expression, "Reimu beat me to it, everything's solved and there's no treasure whatsoever?"
Their expressions contort in confusion.
"No treasure, huh?" Marisa assumes, smiling in a carefree manner. "Oh well, was already expecting that anyway. I mean, this is just a mountain."
One of them shakes their head, and another one speaks... The rest acknowledge those words by giving more verbal input. They truly seem confused about the topic suddenly brought up by the quirky stranger that is Marisa.
. . .
. . .
Marisa's eyes widen in surprise. "Wait, you don't even know who Reimu is...?"
. . .
Meanwhile, Toriel gasps. "That power..." She has managed to dodge everything except for one bullet, miraculously: Reimu's patterns were surpringly difficult, at least in monster standards. However, it isn't the power of her attacks that leaves Toriel shocked, but the fact that she coul even perform them in the first place. "You are a human and yet, you..."
"What's wrong? I didn't do anything inhuman," Reimu says, "I didn't even go all-out on that one." Reimu figured Toriel wouldn't be as experienced with spellcards as she is, so Reimu did end up deciding to cut her some slack. However, it seems like that was already enough to leave her dumbfounded.
Reimu stares at her skeptically, waiting for a response. "Humans are not supposed to be able to shoot those," Toriel explains, still in awe of the situation, "Their bodies are not mostly composed of magic like us monsters: you should not be able to create those patterns, and yet..."
"Huh?" Reimu utters before glancing at one of her ying-yang orbs. "Oh, you mean the bullets? Humans can do this kind of thing too if they have the power for it; it's not impossible. I mean, I'm doing it right..." Reimu pauses, and looks around with a surprised expression. "Why can't I attack...?!"
Reimu's words serve as way to make Toriel go back to looking aloof, having almost forgotten she is fighting Reimu... because she does not truly wish to do so. "Since you marked the end of your turn, it is my turn now," Toriel informed, "You cannot perform any action during your opponent's turn beyond controlling your own soul."
"No, wait, that's not true!" Reimu argues, reminding herself of her encounter with Flowey. "I was able to attack on that flower's turn, without using this soul thing." Reimu used a spellcard to take out the impassable circle of bullets Flowey had conjured, she is at least sure of that. As she thinks about it, she notes that Flowey seemed surprised at the time. Was it because of that?
Toriel's eyes widen in awe. "Is that... the truth? It cannot be..." Toriel looks down at the ground in deep thought, leaving the black square devoid of bullets until the text screen returns and Reimu's soul positions itself next to the HP gauge again.
'*Toriel is too busy pondering your powers to FIGHT.'
"H-hey, your turn!" Reimu shouts, "You ended your turn... or whatever!" Despite Toriel's explanation, Reimu still finds herself not getting used to the idea of this battle system, especially when she has followed the spellcard rules for so many years. "And just after you explained it too..."
Toriel flinches at hearing Reimu, snapping out of her thoughts. "Ah..." She glances to the side. "Well then..." Her gaze turns cold again. "If you are not planning to flee, go on. Prove to me you are strong enough."
"You don't have to say that again!" Not liking the fact that Toriel is underestimating her, Reimu frowns and makes a spellcard emerge on top of her hand. "Dream Sign: Evil-Sealing Circle!"
. . .
"Woah, Aya, you were already around?" Marisa asks, seeing as Aya just came out of the mountain. "What are you even doing here anyway?"
Aya immediately turns to Marisa with a prideful smile the moment she hears her voice. "If it isn't the witch! Were you curious about this mountain as well? I can't blame you: this is the perfect place for my next news article; I've already stocked up on just the right amount of pictures too."
"Huh... Well, I should've known you'd come here for something like that," Marisa responds, shrugging casually. "By the way, isn't it weird that Reimu's nowhere to be found? She's usually the first one to go out whenever there's an incident, but the interesting folks I met here had no idea of who I was talking about. Apparently, someone else is taking care of this already."
"Ah, yes, Moriya's shrine maiden got here a while ago and is currently dealing with this incident," Aya informs, "I suppose that god was as bothered by another mountain in Gensokyo as the Tengu." After those words, Aya's expression turns curious. "Though, now that you mention it, I haven't seen the red-white shrine maiden at all. I wonder why..."
"Yeah..." Marisa mutters, seemingly thoughtful as well. "Hey, if Sanae's been solving this, is she still around?"
"I think so," Aya states, "It's not like I've been following her around, after all. Are you planning on asking her about the shrine maiden?"
Marisa nods. "Yup." Afterwards, she grins. "Oh, and about treasure. When I asked those fellows from the mountain, they said there could be something inside, so I might as well!"
... Aya shakes her head with a smile and shrugs. "Predictable."
. . .
After many, many turns, Reimu managed to take 146 HP from Toriel.
... As for Toriel, her bullets had only hit Reimu twice. She is simply too skilled at dodging bullet patterns; she barely struggled. If anything, the only reason she failed to dodge two times was because she isn't used to having to control her soul rather than moving by herself (leading her to get confused and move her soul randomly by accident). While Toriel still possesses more than enough HP to continue facing Reimu, she is admittedly starting to doubt whether she can truly stop her or not. "Child..." Toriel mutters, gazing at the ground, saddened. "I will not give you any other chance. Give up. Do not go."
Since she figures she can't reach Reimu through fighting, Toriel attempts to convince her through her words again. "I'm pretty sure you've threatened me like that before, and my answer is still the same anyway: I'm not going to stay no matter what you say."
It's Toriel's turn, but she hesitates. That determination in Reimu's eyes... it is hard facing it. However, Toriel is not about to relent. Fire-like bullets shoot from above the black square in two opposing rows that occasionally intertwine, leaving a gap in that area that Reimu's soul could go through each time; the way to clear it is especially easy for Reimu. "If anything, you're the one who should be giving up already: it's clear your patterns are weak; I'm not even trying right now. Didn't you say you wanted to test my strength? I think I've already proven myself enough."
I don't know how to beat these fights anyway, Reimu adds in her mind. While Spellcard battles could only be lost if you get hit too many times, Reimu has yet to know the conditions for taking care of these kinds of fights, so she has merely been attacking at random. Meanwhile, Toriel closes her eyes in a thoughtful, though strained manner, deliberating on something she is not fond of.
. . .
. . .
"... I can see that," Toriel admits, opening her eyes. "You already seem skilled, and have a handful of special abilities no humans have been known to possess. However..." Toriel's saddened expression serves to make Reimu stare at her in slight discomfort, unused to witnessing such raw emotions. "I am afraid, innocent child. I am afraid of you ending up like the rest, like those who have come before you. You do not deserve to die. You do not deserve to be targeted and captured. No one should suffer through such a despicable fate... Do you understand? It is hard to bear... The guilt over not being able to protect them..."
. . .
Reimu frowns, unsure of what to do in light of Toriel's emotions. "H-hey..." Reimu calls out, slightly uneasy from the unfamiliarity of the situation. "Uh, Toriel... I get that you just don't want to send me out to my death, but I can't afford to stay here either. I've got my own home, and my own duties: I belong there, and nowhere else. So, I've gotta go back, no matter what it takes. I don't care if it's dangerous. I've been through lots of dangerous stuff already, so I'm basically used to it by now." Reimu manages to smile, but it's admittedly awkward when seeing Toriel's greatly saddened expression. "Anyway, I'm sorry, but I'm going leave this place, whether you like it or not. I bet it's kind of lonely in gloomy, purple ruins like these, but I'm not the one who should be staying with you. So... Well, I'm fine, so you don't have to worry about me at all."
Reimu points at Toriel with her Purification Rod. "And you? You'll also be fine, I bet."
'*You spare Toriel.'
"Huh?" Reimu utters in reaction to reading the text in front of her; Toriel is equally surprised. What does this mean?
If anything, Toriel looks shocked, and continues to stare at Reimu.
. . .
. . .
. . .
... Finally, Toriel smiles. "You are truly one of a kind, child."
'*You won!'
"I... won?" Reimu questions, staring at the screen confusedly before it disappears from her sight. By 'sparing' her or whatever that was? How does that work?
"It is as you say: even if you stayed here with me, you would not lead a happy life," Toriel says, "I would only be trapping you. Besides, you are actually not like the others. Those powers you possess... With them, you might stand a chance against the dangers outside the Ruins. While it pains me... I will let you go, and hope at least you will make it in the Underground."
In response, Reimu smiles at her with a confident look on her face. "Just you watch: I'll make it for sure. I've got to." Reimu thinks back to her shrine, Gensokyo, and the incident she had intended to stop before falling into the Ruins. Her convictions strengthen. "So, don't be sad and root for me, I guess."
... Toriel chuckles, albeit weakly. "I will consider it, dear child." Afterwards, she faces the door leading further into the Ruins. "Now, I suppose I must guide you to the exit."
Reimu nods before they both start walking, both with fairly hopeful expression on their faces... Reimu wonders what is beyond the Ruins: while Toriel did not speak highly of the rest of the Underground, Reimu finds herself curious about it regardless. I guess that's what I'm gonna see now...
. . .
There aren't that many rooms within the Ruins, Reimu notes. With Toriel's guidance, Reimu was able to arrive to Toriel's house faster than she thought, and is now already downstairs, walking through a long corridor. She thinks back on the puzzles she saw: they weren't too hard, but definitely not something she wanted to deal with. At least Toriel solved them all for me...
After a while, she is facing a big, purple door, and Toriel merely stands there, staring at her. "Well, we have arrived. This door will lead you out of the Ruins," Toriel informs, though the sad tone in her voice is easy to spot. She remains silent...
"... Are you sure about this, child?" Toriel asks in a last attempt to convince Reimu.
Naturally, it fails, and Reimu just nods. "I'm perfectly sure, Toriel," Reimu responds, "I'm not about to back down now." Reimu takes a step towards the door. Toriel flinches.
Before Reimu can even process it, she is hugged by Toriel. Reimu's eyes widen in shock at the gesture, having never experienced this sort of situation before: most youkai are too proud to go hugging others like that (if they even wanted to do such a thing in the first place). Reimu utters nothing, and simply stares on awkwardly as Toriel lets go and distances herself from her. "Please... Be safe, dear child. Goodbye."
With that, Toriel quickly walks away, as if to make sure Reimu wouldn't be able to say anything. "H-hey...!" While Reimu tries calling out to her, Toriel is already too far from Reimu to respond.
. . .
. . .
Seeing as Toriel had undoubtedly done that on purpose, Reimu crosses her arms. "Geez..." Despite showing herself irritated at the situation, when she faces the door, Reimu smiles. Afterwards, Reimu slowly pushes the fairly heavy doors open.
However, ahead of her is only another long hallway. Reimu sighs. "More walking, huh..." She hears the door closing behind her as she starts moving forward, unsure of what to expect. What is the Underground, exactly? Why is it sealed? Who is Asgore?
Finally, she reaches another door. "She could've just guided me over here if I still had to walk all this distance..." Reimu mumbles before mustering more of her strength to push said door open.
... Unfortunately, what she finds beyond it is not pleasant. "Howdy!" Going inside the dark room, Reimu narrows her eyes and assumes a defensive stance. "To be honest, you really got me there with that 'Fantasy Seal' stuff," Flowey remarks with a conversational smile, "I didn't think you had it in you. No one here has that kind of power, you know? And it's a strong one, to boot."
Despite his words, his face starts decaying into a twisted frown, his eyes larger yet more purposely devoid of emotion than before, just to throw Reimu off. "Which is why you're so utterly DISAPPOINTING," he states before his face goes back to normal, and he smirks smugly. "Seriously, you SPARED that old hag? When you could've teared her to bloody pieces? BOOORING. If a strong one was going to fall down here, it'd at least be much more fun if they weren't a tree-hugging IDIOT." Flowey's cheerful expression returns. "Oh well." Unable to shrug, Flowey merely glances to the side innocently as though these circumstances simply couldn't be helped. "Even if you did surprise me back there, I guess I shouldn't have expected much from you to begin with."
"I don't care what you think," Reimu immediately asserts, "I do whatever I want, starting with exterminating you!" Reimu is already grasping five amulets in one hand, smiling confidently at Flowey. "Don't think you're getting away this time!"
Flowey seems unfazed with Reimu's threat, though that also fails to bother Reimu. "You..." Two amulets are dodged. "Wish...!" And so are the three needles right afterwards. "Hee hee hee..." A Ying-yang orb is sent flying towards him at high speeds but Flowey only burrows into the ground and re-appears after the orb returned to its master. "Nice try." His smug expression makes Reimu glare at him, actually feeling annoyed with his presence. "Seriously though, don't you remember what I told you? In this world, it's kill or BE killed," Flowey utters, "So, instead of playing by your own dumb rules, how about you start working on that? Before somebody else takes the initiative, that is..."
Flowey laughs, and Reimu takes that chance to throw ten more amulets at him. He still manages to dodge them; Reimu frowns. "I'd beat them to the ground before they'd have a chance," Reimu responds, "including you." Reimu would've thrown more amulets at Flowey, but she has already figured that wouldn't be worth it.
"Oh, I don't need to do ANYTHING to you... for now." Flowey playfully winks, knowing the extent of his implications and hoping to taunt an already riled up Reimu. "I only have to wait, and wait, and wait... until it all comes together. Or until you die, who knows? We both can't SAVE anything anyway." SAVE...? Reimu questions in her mind, unable to comprehend his words.
However, before she could voice said question, Flowey burrows into the ground, disappearing from Reimu's sight. "Hey!" she reacts, angrily glaring at where Flowey had just been. "That weird flower..." she mumbles, "What does he even want...?"
. . .
Reimu sighs. "I'll take care of him later." With a determined gaze, Reimu faces the door in front of her, slightly bigger than the one she went through to get to this room. "For now..." She pushes the door open, using a considerable amount of her strength.
"... I've gotta move forward, and find a way out of here."
From the other side of the door, the first things Reimu feels are a chilling wind running down her spine, and the determination to get past any obstacle.
Author's Notes:
Holy shit, I actually wrote this, wow 0.0 I really hope I pulled this off well, since Touhou and Undertale are games with such good characters; I wouldn't want to have any of them OOC! Either way, as you can see, this crossover is about Reimu being in Frisk's position, and what would she do in that situation: why Reimu, you ask? While at first, I wanted to write a KHR crossover instead (you don't have to know what series I'm talking about ^^'), I figured that would be really boring because, in the end, most of the characters would go through this like a Pacifist run with almost no changes (except the select few that would go genocidal instead...). So, in the midst of that predicament, many mental images suddenly came to mind and gave me the idea of writing a Touhou crossover: I mean, you know Reimu, don't you? She practically beats up every monster she sees (well, most monsters, anyway) XD However, she doesn't kill them, so I found that to be the best thing in a story like this one since that would mean Reimu wouldn't kill anyone, but she wouldn't be completely pacifistic either.
Besides, her straightforward, dutiful yet somewhat curious and carefree personality just seemed really great to spice things up in the story, especially because that'd contrast a lot with the reactions characters get from a silent protagonist (and also because Reimu's personality is great in general). Basically, I really hope I didn't get Reimu wrong ^^' Seriously, I found myself wondering if Reimu would just, no matter what the situation, beat everyone up: while Curiosities of Lotus Asia shows that she totally does, she's also seen helping certain youkai too in other official work so I'm honestly gonna go with it depending on her mood or how serious the situation is (though she considers beating everyone up by default), making me (thankfully) have her not just beat Toriel to the ground the moment she sets her sights on her.
While I shouldn't have been surprised because he's one of my favorite characters in the game, I really enjoyed writing Flowey too: his self-awareness, combined with how emotionally versatile his 'facial' expressions can be in such an unsettling manner and his haughty attitude in general make him a fun character... however, I imagine no one (including me) would have fun actually talking with someone like Flowey; Reimu wasn't too thrilled either XD Since he seems pretty strong in-game, I also thought he'd be good at dodging stuff too, so he can totally match Reimu ^^ However, to be perfectly honest, the Ruins are the least fun area of the game (compared to the other areas), and Toriel is one of the characters I have least consideration for (note how I didn't say I disliked her; I don't dislike her at all): I don't know, I just can't bring myself to love her like everyone else somehow does. I mean, I like her because she has a certain amount of depth and is a kind individual but I don't loooove her I couldn't feel that much of an emotional tie to her: we didn't have that much time to actually talk to Toriel. I didn't feel that much for her so uh... I think she's overrated? Please don't kill me, I don't hate her X.X
Whatever the case, I tried my damned best to write her properly regardless of my opinions, but I'm still really nervous as to whether I did a good job: she was really adamant about not wanting Frisk to leave the Ruins because she didn't want them to be targeted (since they were just an innocent, weak child), but I figured that maybe, because Reimu is noticeably strong, she'd accept it slightly better since she could fend for herself. However, I did make her still not be very keen on Reimu leaving, especially because Reimu, in her mind, is still just an innocent child: I think Toriel would consider Reimu a child because she's not only really young-looking, but Toriel herself is probably so old that someone Reimu's age comes off as a child to her, even though Reimu's (surprisingly) at least 21 years old. She never looks like it but omg, Reimu's an adult 0.0
I honestly wanted Reimu to see more parts of the Ruins and react to other stuff related to Toriel in the game, but it just wouldn't add up for Reimu not to react to Toriel implying she'd live in the Ruins from then on, so I really had no choice but to have her fight in the dummy room (as un-epic as that is). It admittedly sucked that it had to go that way since it would've been great to have her interact with Napstablook and the other monsters (like Froggit, Whimsum, Moldsmal... remember them...? ^^'), but it just wouldn't add up. Either way, I hope Toriel's fight with Reimu was satisfying enough despite the lack of actual narrated fighting: like, I seriously apologize but, though I wrote a considerable portion of it, the fight wasn't engaging enough to be shown like that! Besides, it was really tripping me up too in a lot of ways...
So yeah, instead, you got really small, vague scenes of what's happening in Gensokyo's side: the plot thickens... hopefully. I really hope I didn't screw anything up with Marisa and Aya... ;_; Beyond that, you may have noticed how I handled fighting in this story: in general, rather than taking out the gameplay fully and go for a realistic re-enacting of how the fights would go, I went for making a sort of set battle system like the Spellcard Battles, just so it would be more interesting to have Reimu get used to it and because it'd make certain parts of the game possible (for example, if Reimu were somehow murderous enough to end up fighting Sans, his tactics would actually work). However, I removed the buttons for FIGHT, ACT, ITEM and MERCY since it'd be really clunky and weird for Reimu to have to push buttons to do things in battle: because of that, her SOUL, when not in that square, is next to her HP gauge rather than inside one of the buttons.
Also, the black square is applied to Reimu because she is a human, and monsters attack the SOUL directly (at least, in my head they do); this is why they don't have squares of their own (since, by hitting them, you're automatically hitting their SOUL seeing as their bodies are mostly comprised of magic and aren't, uh... physical). Beyond that, notable changes I did were establishing a 'no actions (as in, the actions you'd be able to perform with the buttons in the original menu) in the middle of an opponent's turn' to make in-game events even more plausible (however, it seems like Reimu has a very specific exception...? 8D) and ignoring timelines altogether (pfft, what do you mean, 'Undertale is at the very least set after 2010'?). Hopefully you'll get behind these changes since, without them the crossover wouldn't work; I just really had to take some liberties here.
... Wow, I seriously rambled on. Anyway, after the Ruins is Snowdin and damn, I freaking love Snowdin so I hope you're looking forward to it as much as me!
Best deleted sentence of this chapter: "Do you even know what I could do with you inside me?"
I was seriously about to write that in Flowey's dialogue without realizing it, as I was taking the conversation in a whole different direction at the time; it's glorious, I know XDD